Eoe the kecoyesy of gasoleste joto othsb hydbocabbohs



-W. E. WALKER.

PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF GASOLENE AND OTHER HYDROCARBONS. APPLICATION F|LED*MAR. 9. 1918'.

1,307,280., Patented June 17, 1919.

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1 new and Improved: process for recovering WILLIAM or as i s an anxertsas CITY, Kansas. l

EROGESS FOR, THE 'B'EQPVERY 0F GASOLENE AND OTHER H'YIDBOCUNS.

teena e,

Application filed illarcli 9,

To all whom it may concern:

' Be 1t known that 1, WILLIAM E. WALKER,

, a, citizen of the "United States, residing at the Recovery of. Gasolene and other Hydrocarbons, of which the following is a speci- I stitutents may change.

' iients can be precipitated in liquid form, and in thisway recovered from the complex mixture;

placsdunder a high The presentinvention has to do witha gasolene and 'otherhydro-carbons from such complex bodies as natural .gas'and crude-,oil.-

The natural gas comprises a mixture of various hydro-carbonsof diiferingcoinpositions and of greater or less or permanence, and in difierent proportions. The mixture or association of these various constitutents is robably chiefly mechanh cal in nature, alt ough under variations in temperature and pressure certain'o-JE the con-K in their chemical composition also. Upon subjecting; this to various degrees of; presmixture of gases sure and temperature, certamof the constit- Difierentprocesses are at the present time in-use ior this partial or fractional recovcry of ,constitutents from the natural gas by the use of pressure and temperature. Since these are well known and understood in the art, I will not particularly explain them in this specification. t'ention to the fact that where gases are pressure such as is used in certain of these processes, their temperature is also raised to a considerable degree, provided the compression be more. or less adiabatic in nature, conserving the total comprise a amount of 'heat within the-gas tea-greater or less extent. Qonsequently, iii'thefvcry practice of certain of these processes which are at the presentt'me well known and used, "the temperature and pressure of the gas are both raised to a high point.

Crude 011 and other liquid hydro-carbons which mixture also more or less mechani- I will, however, call atmixture of various constitnents,

Specification 01: Letters Qatent. r mm y 1a, was,

1918. 7 Serial no; raiser,

cal in its nature. Possibly difierent constituents are'also in certain chemical combinations, but these would seem also to change with difiering degrees of pressure and tem perature. It is well'understood and known in the art that upon raising the tern erature of a body of crude oil, the more vo atile orlighter constituents will first evaporate or vaporize, so that they may be recovered independently or separately from the remain ing constituents. As the lighter consituents are driven ofi by the application of heat, the tem erature may be raised succes- 'sively to big e-constitutents will be driven off insuccession as the temperature of from point to point. proper attention and apparatus, the various constitutents can thus be recovered separately in a greater or less 'degreeo'f refinement depending largely upon the accuracy with which the cutsare made at diflerent temperatures. The practice of this fractional distillation of crude oil and similar complex loodiesrequires the applicati' not a large amount o'fwork in the form of heat. When: this heatis specially gener- By the exercise of ated forth-is purpose, iii-follows that a large amount of fuel must be consumed specially for its generation. This means that wit the ris'ng cost of fnelthe expense attendant upon this phase of the process is he coming greater-and a more and more important Item.

Where the crude oil is distilled in a coresideralole body contained within-a vat or other similar receptacle to which the heat is applied, great di culty has-'in'the'past been experienced by reason of the fact'that the pitch'and other heavier hydro-carbons are precipitated on thewalls of the container, thereby rapidly reducing the 'efliciency of heat transfer .to' the body of oil contained within the vat, besidesendangerim the lives and limbs of those working in the neighor degrees, and the heavier 6% the body is raised by the'use of suitable borhood, for the reasonthat with the reduction of efficiency of heat- .transfer, therearises danger that the walls of the con tainer will be burned or softened hyxthe fire on the outside to such an extent as to make causing the I .or has been .uid hydro-carbons. the invention consists 1n the provision of a possible blow-outs and explosions. These have in the past been a serious item in-the practice of this process of distillation.

In addition to the foregoing dangers and objections to the use of the bulk or vat process of distillation, this process has been slow and the amount of in a vat of given size during a given period of time has been relatively small. Consequently the initial investment for a plant of given capacty or output has been Very large and conversely the Working efliciency has been relatively low.

In the practice of the process to which the present-invention relates, I avail myself of the presence of the heat already contained within the gas under high pressure, andwhich was generated in the process of recovering certain of the constituents from such complex gases as like. That is to say, I combine the treatment of the gas with the treatment of the crude oil or other complex liquid hydrocarbon tothe extent that I avail myself of the heat energy already present in the gas under compression for distilling the desired constituents from the complex mass of liq- A simple application of suitablevat or container for the liquid hydrocarbons, in conjunction with means for gas under pressure and at high temperature to work its way up through the body of the oil, thereby, meeting the oil and distilling off the desired constituents and simultaneously mixing or joining the constituents so distilled with the gas which was introduced into the body or mass of the oil. The result will be that the gas delivered after it is passed through the body of the oil will be enriched by those constituents which were distilled, out of the body of the oil through which the gas was'passed.

Since areduction of pressure of the gas will be accompanied by a simultaneous reduction in its temperature (assuming that the operation be more or less adiabatic in nature), it follows that, in order to secure the most desirable results, the gas should be substantially up to its initial pressure as it passes through the body of the oil. Thereafter, and when it has taken into its mass from the complex liquid, it may be cooled in a suitable container to remove those constituents which will precipitate by the aforesaid reduction in temperature.

If the temperature ,of the complex body of liquid hydro-carbons be raised to an ex-v cessive degree,.the process will be accompanied by what is known as cracking of certain of the constituents. onsequentl it is desirable to raise the temperature'onhy approximately to 700 F. for the recovery of such lighter hydro-carbons as gasolene,

oil which could be treated is the better 7 gas for the-recovery of certain natural gas and the enriched by the constituents causing the hot gas morass naphtha, etc. In the practice of the process of recovering gasolene, naphtha, etc., from such crude complex mixtures, as natural gas, it is frequently necessary to raise the pressure to 300 pounds er square inch or even higher. \Vith a strictly adiabatic compression of the gas to such pressure, the temperature will generally be considerably higher than that necessary or desirable for the subsequent treatment of the crude oil. F urthermore, it may not be feasible from a practical standpoint to compress the gas at one stage to such a high pressure as 300 pounds per square inch, and, therefore, it

practiceto carry on the compression in two or more stages. Where the process of my present invention is also made to include the preliminary treatment of the constituents therefrom, I may lnsert a condenser between certain of the compression stages for the purpose of therein recovering some of the constituents from the gas. Thereafter the gas will be again compressed in one or more subsequent stages and its temperature raised to that necessary ordesirable for the treatment of the liquid hydro-carbons.

It will be understood that, as far as the process of treating the liquid hydro-carbons by the use of gas might be one or several hydro-carbons mixed together, as, for example, natural gas, or it might be compressed air; or, in some cases, it might be hot gases coming ofi' from a bench of retort coke ovens or the like.

In order that the features of the present process may be more easily. understood, I have shown in the drawing in diagrammatic form a simple layout of apparatus for prac- 1 5 tising the features of the present invention.

In this layout, I have shown a vat or tank' 1, of sufficiently rigid constru tion to withstand the pressure under which the process is carried forward The untreated crude oil is admitted or forced into the tank through the connection 2, and after the. process has been completed, the treated oil is delivered through the pipe or connection 3. The gas at high temperature and under proper pressure is delivered into the vat through the pipe 4', and is discharged from the vat through the pipe 5 after it has passedthrough the body of the oil within the vat.

he process is most effectively practised to bubble'or force its way up through the mass of liquid oil.

For this purpose, I have shown the pipe 4 as leading into the bottom portion of the vat. For a similar reason, I have shown a 12 :baflie plate or sheet 6 extending across the lower portion of the vat, and provided with a plurality of openings 7 through which the 3. The travel of the gas cylinder 12.

' caught in entire body of oil.

is to say,

- and any gasolene neoaaeo For a similar reason I have shown another bafie sheet 8 above the plate 6, said bafliesheet 8 having aplurality of hoods directly over the openings 7 and having the intermediate openings 9. Manifestly any other suitable arrangement may be adopted in thosecases where special provision isfound desirable in order to secure a more or less uniform distribution of the gas through the body of the oil. In order to prevent the entrance of crude oil into the discharge pipe 5 on account of foaming and the like, I have provided a bafiie 10 beneath the opening into said discharge pipe.

In many, cases the present invention will be practised as a continuous process; that the untreated oil will be introduced more or less continuously throu h the pipe 2, the treated oil being similar y removed more or less continuously through the pipe upwardly through the vat will be more or less across the path of travel of the oil through the vat, so that all portions of the oil will beuniformly treated at all times.

In the particular layout illustrated,I have shown a two stage compressor including the low pressure cylinder 11 andthe high pres sure cylinder 12. Manifestly, a greater or less number of stages may be used as desired. I have also shown a surface condenser 13 in the pipe 14; which connects the two stages together, the cylinder 11 drawing the gas it, delivering it through the pipe 14: to the Cooling water for the condenser 13. may be introduced through the pipe 16 and delivered through the pipe 17,

oipitated within the condenser 13-will be the Vat or trap 18.

After the gas has been again compress in the cylinder 12 so as to again raise its temperature, it will be delivered through the connection t into the vat where the oil is being treated.

In order to recover constituents from the treated'gas, I have shown the discharge or delivery pipe 5 as leading to a surface condenser 19 which is cooled by a stream of water introduced through a connection through a connection 21, By lowering the temperature of the gas in this condenser, gasolene, naphtha, and other constituents will be brought down which may be caught in the trap 22 The cooled as, ordinarily still under pressure, will discharged from this condenser 19 through a connection 23 for further treatment by other processes should that be desirable.

I wish to point out and emphasize the fact that the layout of mechanisms herein illustrated is very well adapted for associating es the treatment of the oil with the process for from the connection 15, compressing or other constituent prethe gasolene and other 20 and discharged recoveryof certain constituents from natural gas by the use of pressure and tempera- 1 der some other pressure depending upon the constituents which it was desired to remove from the crude oil. I wish to 'POlIlt out the fact that the processes and results herein contemplated may would be also be secured by spraying the oil and gas together, instead of passing the gas through a bath or mass of more or. less liquid material containing the enriching hydro carbons. That is to say, hot gas and more or less liquid material may be intermingled by spraying them togethereither one or both being sprayed-or otherwise brought into association at the proper temperature to eifect the intermingling desired.

I will alsopoint out that the term gas may in many cases include air, or other non.- hydro-carbon gas, since many of the'features of the present invention may be secured by the use of hot air or other non-hydro-carbon gas, instead. of hot more or less gaseous hydro-carbons. For example, if certain of the constituents are to be removed from a complex mixture of more or less liquid hydro-carbons, a current of hot air or other gas (non-hydro-carbon in nature) might be used, or, conversely, a current of air or other 'non-hydro-carbon gas might be intermingled rent of such liquid hydro-carbons through a v'at containing a substantial amount thereof in bulk, compressing a current of gaseous hydro-carbons for the purpose of condensing a portion thereof and raising the temperature of the gaseous portion, passing such gaseous portion through the body of li uid hydro-carbons contained in the vat n hile the recovery of certain desired constituents lilti- Hid .maintaining its temperature and pressure,to

women therefrom, which consists inpassing astream =pression and at high temperature through of such hydro-carbons through a vat Wherethe hydro-carbons contained in the vet to 10 in they are contained in bulk, compressing thereby distil certain constituents from the another complex mixture of. gaseous hydromaterial contained in the vet and incorpo- 5 carbons for the purpose of precipitating a rate the same within the current of gas subportion thereof and raising thetemperature stantietlly as described. of the compressed hut unprecipltated. por- 4 tion, and passing sald gas while under com- LLI E. WALKEn. 

